Motivation


This page was designed to help teachers who are struggling to motivate their students to participate in the learning experience (What secondary education teacher isn't?) What makes students care about what teachers share with them everyday? Grades? Potential career opportunities? Parents? End of the year pizza party?

Any one of these motivators, or a combination of them, may be what drives a student to do their homework, study for tests, participate in class discussion. If a student doesn't have these motivations, how is classroom time going to be useful to him/her?

Many students are in this boat, and many teachers are left feeling helpless because they have so much knowledge to share with their pupils, but a lack of enthusiasm on the students' part puts a damper on what should be know as "the joy of teaching".

Whether it be intrinsic motivation (desire for understanding) or extrinstic motivation (desire for high grades), if students don't have some reason for wanting to learn, than the teacher is going to have a hard time doing their job and ENJOYING it.

Listed below are some potentially helpful websites and articles that share some ideas for motivating students in and outside the classroom. They should be particularly helpful to science teachers, and the list will continue if our feed is working properly....


The following attachments are an invitation to view the documentary film, Accelerating America. This film depicts three Rhode Island high school students and their struggle to keep motivation to stay in school. It is inspiring for those teachers who feel like giving up on students who don't seem to care about school.

Documentary film:

Accelerating America

URI Teacher Knowledge Motivation FAQ


Subject Author Replies Views Last Message
Walking around during class. aellig aellig 1 9 Apr 7, 2009 by ecopeley ecopeley
Sleeping in class? aellig aellig 0 4 Apr 7, 2009 by aellig aellig
My students won't stop talking! aellig aellig 0 4 Apr 7, 2009 by aellig aellig
What to do with this? aellig aellig 0 2 Apr 7, 2009 by aellig aellig


Quick assessment of motivation in the classroom:

Motivation Questionairre




Useful articles from the outside world.



    6:05 3/10/09



      Files that could not be bookmarked due to technology problems.